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28th January 2026
10:40am GMT

Louise Thompson has shared a new, heartbreaking insight into the 'traumatic' birth of her son Leo.
Back in 2021, Louise had to undergo an emergency C-section after suffering "serious complications" while she was in labour, leading her to spend five weeks in hospital.
Louise haemorrhaged during the surgery, resulting in her losing a life-threatening amount of blood, leaving her with severe PTSD.
Since then, Louise has been diagnosed with Lupus, Asherman's syndrome, and suffered a second haemorrhage.
And back in 2018, the reality star was also diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis and had a stoma bag fitted.
Over four years after her traumatic birth experience, Louise has shared a new insight into the birth of her son.
On Tuesday, Louise took to Instagram to post a video montage in honour of her campaign for a maternity commissioner for the UK.
The first few clips show Louise holding baby Leo for the first time, but also breaking down in tears in the hospital.
Louise took the opportunity to write in the caption why she is campaigning for improved birth rights in the UK.
“This is dedicated to all those who didn’t survive and those who lost their babies. Thank you to the 30,000 of you who have already signed our petition. This number is significant because it’s also the number of women who develop PTSD following childbirth every year,” she wrote.
“@theoclarkemp and I believe that we NEED a maternity commissioner in this country – because every woman deserves the right to a safe and dignified birth. It would be great to see our government enforce some of the 748 recommendations that have been made following various inquiries over the past decade.
“I have to say I’m SO RELIEVED that so many of you care about women, our birth rights, and our babies,” she continued.
“The time is now. I’ve been reading a brilliant book about tipping points this week, and I think we are about to be the ‘push’ that nudges something major over the line. Please join me in that pursuit.
“This issue can’t keep getting sidelined in favour of other projects. Childbirth is the inception of life. What is more important than that? We need standardised care for all. Next steps – We would love a conversation with our health minister, Wes,” Louise added.
People were quick to flood the comments section with heartfelt messages of support.
“Powerful. Thank you for using your incredible voice to raise much-needed awareness. It will help and give comfort to many mums,” one person wrote.
“Signed! Thank you for doing this! ” another agreed.
“Incredible that you’ve made such a change happen already. We’re supporting you in the next steps,” a third added.
Louise’s Instagram post comes as she undergoes IVF treatment in hopes of conceiving a second child with her fiancé, Ryan Libbey.
However, earlier this month, Louise shared how she was feeling “hugely disappointed” about the latest results of her treatment with her TikTok followers.
“Well, in the interest of being honest, I feel f***ing s**t. I just had a call with the embryologist, and I was really hoping for better news than this, because we had 20 eggs retrieved yesterday. I felt like my body was really doing all the right things. I felt so hormonally ready,” she began.
“I could feel it inside that I was going to get loads [of eggs]. So we got 20. Anyways, so then I felt really optimistic yesterday, and then I just got off this call, and they said that only 10 were mature, which is hugely disappointing because that already cuts that in half, and I just wonder how.
“Of the 10, they’ve split them into two groups, so they were going to add this AOA or whatever it’s called, egg activation process, on half of them. Apparently, out of all 10, only two fertilised in each group. Only four have fertilised [in total], and that’s on day one, and we’ve got to get through to day five,” she explained.
“So from 20 eggs on day one, we’ve now got four that are fertilised. And when we last did it, I only got eight eggs retrieved, but all eight fertilised on day one, so I’m just looking at the statistics, if we only have f***ing four fertilised on day one, so what, we are going to have half an embryo now?” Louise admitted further.
“I just feel so demoralised now. This is so rank. Apparently, six that were immature have been kept an eye on, and they might have matured a bit and grown, so they are going to try and fertilise those today,” she concluded.
In the caption of the video, Louise added a more positive note, confirming that the couple had since received “some more positive news”.
“This is what the rawness of IVF can look like. I don’t know whether this was rational or hormonal? I’m pleased to say that things have picked up a bit since, and we have had some more positive news,” she wrote.
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